POST-PUNK PIONEERS
Became heart & lungs of 80s Big Gold Dream tells how Scotland still having an influence today music.. and how those involved are
Glasgow band, observed: “They looked like the Famous Five.”
Last was a different type of operator. He had the self-confidence to borrow £400 from the bank then take the Mekons, a bunch of angstridden students from Leeds, to a friend’s uncle’s cottage in the Borders.
There was, apparently, a recording studio in one of the bedrooms.
When they arrived, the cottage was locked. Last’s girlfriend, Fast co-founder Morrison, was put through a window to open the front door. None of this gave Last a microsecond of self doubt. “I just assumed I’d make something f ***** g great and people would want to buy it,” he said.
Last grasped that the design and packaging of Fast records would be crucial. “The brand gave us the power to introduce the music to people.”
Not all his decisions were brilliant. Although he released two Joy Division tracks on Fast’s Earcom compilations, he declined to sign them. Morrison was put off by their name, which refers to the prostitutes who serviced the Nazis in concentration camps.
They also turned down the Cramps, deranged Californians playing rockabilly garage who went on to become indie legends. Too rock’n’roll for Fast.
But a cassette and letter written on silver foil did grab Last’s interest. It was from Sheffield crew The Human League, who were using synthesisers to make bleak dance music.
He released their first singles, Being Boiled and The Dignity of Labour. Only problem was, in his eyes, “they didn’t know anything about music”.
Last’s solution was to hive singer Phil Oakey away from the less photogenic synth boys. They became Heaven 17. He then put Oakey with two lassies they’d met in a nightclub and Edinburgh guitarist/songwriter, Jo Callis, the Rezillos’ keyboard player. As soon as Callis learned to play synth, Last’s ambition, to create an “arty Abba”, was realised. The Human League album, Dare, sold nine million. Single, Don’t You Want Me, was Christmas No1 in 1981.
Postcard had a different trajectory, although Horne’s aim to create a big shiny pop record label making huge hits was similar to Last’s. In Orange Juice, he had found a punk rock band who wanted to make records like Chic. His management style was deep DIY, even for those lo-fi times. He stored fan mail in a bedroom wardrobe. When the sleeve for Josef K’s single Radio Drill Time needed coloured in, visitors to West Princes Street were handed a pile, shown the felt pens and told to get on with it. It’s these details that make Big Gold Dream a joy. It took director Grant McPhee 10 years to make. “Big Gold Dream is not encyclopedic,” he says. “It doesn’t mention the Simple Minds or the Skids. “But it does show Scotland could be creative. These people didn’t ask permission. They created an alternative record industry. “Kids today are so obsessed with technology. I hope they take out a notepad and see what people achieved in the 1980s with nothing but some great ideas.” l Big Gold Dream, tonight, BBC Two Scotland, 9pm.